Doctor Who The Scripts: The Power of the Daleks

This book contains the script for Patrick Troughton's first story, "The Power of the Daleks," as well as some introductory material talking about the script and the rewrite it went through, as well a bit about its production and about the decisions involved in the switch from Hartnell's Doctor to Troughton's.

Apparently there were a number of these script books published in the 1990s, but I hadn't even realized they existed until I encountered this one in a used book store a few years ago. I'm guessing they never really made it to the US. Pity, as it would have been nice to have been able to read this one back in the day, before the animated version came out. Since the story itself, or at least the video part of it, no longer exists and show more being able to read the script is at least something, especially as it contains a lot of descriptions of the more visual aspects. Of which there are a lot, especially in the first episode, many of which were clearly written (or, according to the introduction, rewritten) to allow Troughton to show off his acting and his very different take on the Doctor. Then again, it mostly just made me sad and angry that that pivotal introductory performance, audio track aside, has been lost.

Still, it was interesting and entertaining enough to read through, especially as it's a pretty good episode even aside from its significance as Troughton's debut, full of scheming and treachery from humans and Daleks alike.

Mostly, though, it just has me fantasizing, not for the first time, about getting my hands on a TARDIS so I could go back in time and save all those missing episodes from the BBC's short-sighted destruction. show less